


A Game of Bluff

by Esaelpx7



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Slice of Life, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-27
Updated: 2018-03-27
Packaged: 2019-04-08 17:52:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14110803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Esaelpx7/pseuds/Esaelpx7
Summary: The Phantom Thieves of Hearts may have been famous. May have fought against strong society figures . May have fought against a false god. May have saved Christmas. May have save Japan itself.But they are teenagers, and teenagers play games. One of their favorite game is “bluff”, “I doubt it”, “bullshit”, or whatever you call that card game with your cards down and lots of lying. After all, why not? They are The Phantom Thieves of Hearts, they hold a lot of secret like secret identity, secret method, and all that. You would think bluffing others suspicions off them would help them bluff in a card game, you thought wrong.





	A Game of Bluff

**Author's Note:**

> I like to play bullshit in with my friends although my friends always joke that whenever i play, first place is unreachable. I cant help myself from imagining Makoto being the same way so here it is.  
> Ann's part is kinda disappointing since it's so short but i cant imagine her as not being like that.  
> Also, it's place in order from last place to first place

Morgana rarely plays. He rarely could, not with his cat paws in reality. He’ll enjoy watching the game anyway and uses every opportunity he got to insult someone (mostly Ryuji) about their non-existent bad strategy. However, for all his slander (“You’re really bad at this Skull”) when Morgana does play (in the Metaverse within a safe room or the top floor of Mementos where his paw is much more functional) he rarely win. It makes the others wonder if he uses the _no thumbs_ excuse to hide the fact that he’s bad at this. After all, Morgana is the one who lock picks Madarame’s feather painted door in his _cat form_ (using not lockpicking equipment, but claws).  
But then again, when Makoto is playing, they all know first place is unreachable.  
Morgana plays recklessly, yet with a defined strategy. He never calls out anyone unless he’s 90% sure they’re bluffing. He always make sure to look confident as ever whenever he’s bluffing. His arrogance is his downfall as Morgana can’t help but boast whenever he got himself a good hand and sometimes (most of the time), the lack of boasting is a huge tell. But the other do wish for him to boast sometimes.  
When he doesn’t boast, who else is going to bother Ryuji to the point of (accidentally) revealing his cards.  
________________________________________  
Futaba also rarely play, for a different reason than Morgana. Mostly because she deems video games are better that card games (“We can even play card games within video games!”). Secondly because unless they’re playing in the Metaverse, neither her nor the rest of the team wanted to play.  
Futaba would only play within two place, in the Metaverse (confined within the safe room of a palace or the top floor of mementos) or within Leblanc’s comfortable attic-slash-Akira’s room. Never in public for the sake of her slowly recovering social anxieties.  
Every time Futaba wanted to play, the rest of the group would refuse playing in Leblanc and suggested either the Metaverse or public places. They speak from experience when they say they won’t play in Leblanc. Who would want to play in a place where someone got the added advantage of multiple bugs?  
Futaba refuse public places and the rest refuse Leblanc, the solution should be clear right? Except the Metaverse is also forbidden for a reason.  
Sojiro, as the residential coffee dad to the Phantom Thieves and actual legal father to Futaba, would only allow Futaba (and the rest) to play in two places. The first is Leblanc during closing hour, never opening hours (“Don’t disturb my customer!” “What customer?”) For obvious reasons. And the second is the living room of his house (very rare since Sojiro like his peace, but the carpet beneath them is much better than the attic’s hard floor). The Metavese is out of question as its unknown nature cause him to worry to death.  
In conclusion, it’s hard starting a game with Futaba, much less to calculate her win statistics.  
________________________________________  
Ryuji’s personality is brash, fitting to his role as the powerhouse of the group. That brash attitude also follows in his (non-existent) strategy whenever he plays. Out of everyone, Ryuji has the least chance of winning. After all, Ryuji is quick to call bluff for every small twitch there is whether or not that small twitch is a lie habit. But this tactic of his is quite effective, 2 out of 5 will fail because of Ryuji. The other 3 out of 5 left him struggling to hold his bunch of cards. Even though sometimes it makes him forget some obvious facts that has whirring in his head (come on Ryuji, Haru has been holding on to that card since forever she’s just disappointed she have to let go).  
The fact that he’s also easily distracted is also fortunate (to the others), sometimes he wouldn’t call out bluff even though he clearly has created a landmine. His hotheadedness would cause him to accidentally reveal his cards.  
________________________________________  
Ann has no strategy. She put down the right cards. She bluff only when she have to. She calls out when she feels like it. She mostly just enjoy the game and rolls her eyes when the others got too competitive.  
She agreed to play. She plays. She struggles. She’s got second to last or maybe she’s got last. She laugh and congratulate Makoto for winning again. She asked Makoto for playing advice and pretends to listen as Makoto gives her the gist of her strategy. She nods and give an excited shout. Rinse and repeat.  
It doesn’t matter that she lose. She just want to play and enjoy with her friends.  
(Although she does mind whenever she loses to Ryuji)  
________________________________________  
Nobody knows how Yusuke play. He always seems to get sidetracked (“What passion! I must paint you !”) easily. He usually doesn’t pay attention much, always alternating between the game and his sketchpad. Yet Yusuke somehow still claims fourth place.  
The others have got a few theories about Yusuke’s tactic. Makoto claim that Yusuke’s talent as an artist makes him highly emphatic and can feel whenever they lie. Haru claim that his artistic talent let Yusuke have amazing eyesight which can determine who holds what card in just a glance. Ann claims that Yusuke is just good at this game with no tactics whatsoever. Akira claims that it’s predictable consider fifth and sixth are Ann and Ryuji (“Ooh. Burn!”)  
I guess we won’t ever know.  
________________________________________  
Haru never play to win (she still won third most of the time), Haru plays to _exploit_ others, to torture others in a no consequences environment. Haru always play like her talks. It’s sweet, slow, and a hard contrast to its somewhat hard and sadistic contents. She always plays recklessly in the beginning. She would start giggling quietly whenever she has a full set. 4 aces, 4 sixes, 4 kings. The others call them as landmines, and they fear its absolute power.  
She calls the others out a lot in the beginning, mostly failing and gaining cards instead. But then most of the deck will end up in her hand, more chances of creating landmines. She will giggle whenever she completed a set. Whenever she giggles, some form of protest soon follows. Complains from Ryuji, groans from Ann, frowns from Futaba, shivers from Yusuke, sighs from Akira, growls from Morgana and eye rolls from Makoto. Another landmine has been set and ready to exploit other’s lies.  
Haru is the Landmine master, holding her thick set of cards and ready to blow up whoever is unlucky enough to land on her mines.  
In conclusion, everyone release a sigh of relief every single time her small pout of disappointment comes, a clear sign of her letting go of one of her landmines.  
________________________________________  
In 11 out of 13 times, Akira would won second place (first is Makoto’s, third is Haru’s, fourth is Yusuke’s , fifth and sixth is the resident blondes’) which is extremely predictable, nobody bother to bet anymore.  
His position as the leader of the Phantom Thieves, as Joker, as the Trickster, as the one confidently interact with his many confidant, make him amazing at reading people. Akira knows every smallest tick his fellow thieves make when they lie. He knows Ryuji would nervously grin and put his card down as quickly as possible. He knows Morgana would tug on his bright yellow scarf. He knows Ann would twirl her blonde locks. He knows Yusuke right hand would twitch for a brush. He knows Makoto would bite her lip as she watches the person sitting two turns before her put down their cards. He knows Futaba would put both of her hands on the table with her fingers spread as if typing on a computer. He knows Haru would hesitate and mumbles a bit.  
The outline of is strategy may not be so different from Haru and Ryuji, but calling out others isn’t the only thing he does. He also manipulate them.  
Whenever he has wanted to differ the attention from him to others, he would manage to manipulate the others attention away as he wish. Sometimes he would set Morgana and Ryuji for a brief banter. If it’s not Morgana and Ryuji, then it’s Futaba and Yusuke, other times it’s Ann and Ryuji. It’s never a big ugly banter, just small, friendly, and most importantly loud, banter which would distract the others. His tactics is brilliant isn’t it?  
(If only Yusuke isn’t so emphatic and read his manipulation, stopping him from first place.)  
________________________________________  
Makoto plays like a queen, _the queen_. She is Queen, the strategist of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, a part of the most famous group of thieves in 2017 Tokyo. If you can change your sister’s heart without stealing her treasure, while at the same time fooled an intellectual detective prince into thinking he killed you leader (admittedly with unfortunate consequences) with not a lot of time to plan, then you are a remarkable strategist. Makoto is a remarkable strategist.  
You can probably count the times she won second in one hand. Her chances of terribly losing is like trying to find a dark lock of hair in Ann’s blonde locks.  
Of course she’s smart. She’s the student council president, the one who always got first place, the one Principal Kobayakawa (“That glob of slime!”) trusted to bring in the Phantom Thieves (Oops, she become one because of you).  
After all, the one trick to this game is simple math. She always counts. This round I need a four, the next I need a Jack, after that a five, then so on and so forth. She knows when to call out a bluff (most of the time), she knows how to avoid Haru’s landmines, and she knows how to bluff if she have to, nobody would ever notice (except Akira, he always knows and sometimes Yusuke too).  
The point is, she would win 11 out of every 13 game. _Makoto_ is Queen. Plays like a queen, win like a queen, being the lead strategist like a queen. The Queen of the game.


End file.
